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When the power company announces that 98 percent of its customers have had their electricity restored it means that 2 percent are still in the dark. Thanks to an upsurge in retirements some federal retirees are experiencing a long wait in getting full benefits, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.

I retired on December 31, 2011. To be fair and honest, I must congratulate OPM for the swiftness and thoroughness of my retirement process. I received ONE interim payment and on March 1, 2012 (February's payment) I received my full benefit. Everything was correct and my paperwork was easy to follow. I guess I was lucky. Anyways, there's hope out there!!!!

Two co-workers retired last year and after 8 months, they had to contact OPM to declare a hardship to get their annuities processed. The majority of retiree packages should be quick and easy. No break in service or no divorce. And last time I ran my own retirement calculation on my laptop using the Employee Benefit Info System (EBIS), other than a couple days difference for military time, it was spot on. For years, the OPM director has been stating that more people are being hired to alleviate this problem. After an employee puts in 30+ years of honorable service, having to stand in line at the DMV to get your retirement timely and correct is not right.

For those with short memories, OPM's problems with handling retirement application paperwork go back a long way. The prior administration, when Linda Springer was the OPM Director, launched the RETIRE-EZ progarm designed to finally automate the antediluvian manual retirement application processing methodology, a massive project upon which OPM came a cropper due to contractual and other problems, primarily involving poor oversight by OPM. RETIRE-EZ was eventually put out of its misery by the current OPM Director, John Berry. However, Mr. Berry did nothing to address the still unresolved and increasing delays in the retirement application process until an avalanche of constituent complaints flooded congressional offices, which in turn castigated OPM. Mr. Berry admitted i congressional testimony that OPM did not even have a plan in place to begin to deal with the problem, but hastily had his staff put one together. Unfortunately, the "plan" largely involves cosmetic fixes, including adding more retirement claims staff while leaving any real "fixes" to the broken process to the future. OPM has a long history of management failures in dealing with large scale projects of this kind (anyone remember the USAJOBS 3.0 fiaasco?). It would appear that that record of failure will continue indefinitely.

After reading this article, i wanted to say, if they have improved I cant confirm that. I retired in September 2011 and am still on interim payments. It has been a nightmare and my case is not that difficult. Nearly 10 months have passed and they still cant confirm items necessary to calculate my annuity. My question is, why have they waited this long...I have contacted them so many times (in a patient way i might add) and it seems that no one really cares except me....At this point I am turning to my Senator for assistance. OPM needs to monitor their personnel and set deadlines like the rest of us had when we worked. Anyway, a word to the wise is to document your efforts and dont expect to be paid for 8-12 months. I question OPM's increase in clearing backlogs. From talking with other retirees, the nightmare continues! Good luck to those retiring now, the increase in buyouts will only perpetuate this lack of response in my opinion.....

I hope that all of the new hires are being put in an automated system so that, at some point, the entire process will become easier. I know it can't be done (well) retroactively. I saw the number of retirees processed a month or so ago and I was appalled at the small number handled. Unacceptable, OPM.